Pups Save A Robot
by WALL-E and EVE In Love
Summary: When Rocky builds a portal that will allow him to travel to other worlds, he finds bigger surprise than he bargained for.
1. Rocky's New World

Rocky had only stepped out of a portal he'd made into the world to get some fresh air. Some alone time.

This was...a bit too much. Of alone that is.

The air certainly wasn't fresh. It was thick with uncomfortable warmth and foreign smells he didn't know existed. That wasn't a compliment either. It smelled horrible. But he shouldn't have been surprised since the whole place as far as he could see was covered in piles of dirty, disgustingly brown garbage.

At first he thought he'd landed in the world's dump. It just seemed like the most logical answer. But, no. When Rocky peered ahead, he saw that there were actually SKYSCRAPERS made of garbage too. And as he walked closer, he noticed that they weren't haphazardously piled together; they were cubes, all stacked neatley on top of eachother, with a path winding down the buildings. Whoever built the buildings sure did have a lot of time and patience on his hands.

But the thing that disturbed Rocky most weren't the rows of garbage or the horrible smell, but the intense silence around him.

Normally when he stepped into new worlds, he would rescue someone from another world, or someone who was too small to talk to without scaring them away with another PAW Patrol member. If he didn't return soon, they'd more than likely ask where he is, than he Chase, Skye or Anna would ask where he is. Rinse and repeat for every world. But Rocky had probably been wandering around in circles for hours in that lonely world, and he saw no one. He didn't even hear anyone. Nor was there any wind(though that was probably good since he didn't know whether or not the skyscrapers truly were stable).

Rocky probably wouldn't have minded the silence as much if there was at least one sign of life, but this world just seemed to be the pure definition of DEAD. Where was everyone? No...Then there would be masses of them everywhere around him. Another confusing thought. Why were there no Heartless? Were they able to tell the difference between ugliness and beauty? Then they were probably smarter than Sora gave them credit for.

He came down to think. Just to clear his head. To take a break for a little while. Maybe come up with a plan to find a non dangerous route to the Organization's stronghold, but his mind kept drifting back to curiosity: 'What happened here? Is anyone alive? Who made the trash buildings? WHY would they make trash buildings?' Finally leaving his circle, which was growing a dent from where he walked, he decided to check for any more signs of life. Though he had the feeling that he wouldn't be having that much luck. Then again, he thought with a smile, that was just him. He always had to find a positive side to things.

Then, much to his surprise and relief, he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Turning so he could see it clearly, he quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

He'd been expecting a human or animal, instead, in the distance, there was a pearly white egg shaped...THING levitating off the ground, steadily gazing at its surroundings. Its head was also floating about an inch off of its body, and on the front of the head it had a black screen that displayed two blue oval shaped LED eyes, but no mouth. And on its body, floating an inch away from each sides, it had smooth flat white metals that were obviously its arms, though they lacked fingers. It certainly didn't look human, but it was pretty easy to tell that it was made of metal, so Rocky just dubbed it a robot. It seemed a little out of place in this world, though. A sleek spotless robot like that didn't fit in well with the dirty land.

The point was, it was someone. This world wasn't without souls.

"Hey!" Rocky shouted, waving his left hand in the air. "Hey, you! Are there others nearby?" It didn't show any sign that heard him. Instead, it emitted an eery blue light from its "chest" on the ground. For a few seconds the light was focused on it, then there were three beeping sounds, followed by a negative "diiink" that reminded Rocky of the sound a computer makes when access is denied to a certain website. Starting to feel irritated, Rocky called, louder, "At least tell me why the world looks like this!"

Still nothing. It was busy scanning something else with the blue light, but again with apparently negative results. Wondering if he was just too far away to be heard, he edged closer to where the robot floated, his footsteps echoing through the thick air, making it sound like someone else was walking very close by.

The robots' back was turned now, and it was again scanning something miscellanious. "Hey," Rocky said, "Where is-"

Faster than Rocky thought was possible, the robot whipped its entire body around to face him, its right arm pointing at him. But its arm was no longer an arm-it had shifted into a gun, and fired.

BAM!

Rocky was knocked back with a shout of surprise. It didn't hurt all that much, but it left him feeling stunned and shaky, like he'd been hit by a tazer. So it wasn't any regular gun. Rocky silently thanked God that he'd had experienced worse things than that blast. If not, that probably would've killed him. After falling on his back and shaking the cobwebs out of his head, he immediately leaped back up and glared at the robot. And the robot glared at him, its oval shaped eyes were now curving downward in cold, half moon shaped glower. It still had its gun out, and looked like it would fire again at the first sign of defiance.

"Hey! What was that for?" Rocky demanded. "I was just trying to ask where everyone was!"

To his surprise, the robot spoke back. "Who are you?" The voice was as cold as its expression, and though it was hard to tell since it sounded so metallic, Rocky actually caught the sound of a FEMALE voice. It just sounded like a woman speaking through a computer. Maybe that was why, now that Rocky thought of it, it looked kind of feminine. It WAS a woman. A robot with an actual gender...

At least he wouldn't have to call her "it" anymore.

"Who are you?" She repeated in the same tone. "Who are you?"

Rocky suddenly remembered he had stepped into another world. The anger surged back into him, along with a new dose of suspicion. "Why do you want to know?" When someone got Rocky angry, it was normally pretty hard for him to stop himself from getting into a fight. But really, this robot would deserve it. In fact, she probably wasn't even a "good guy" for that matter. Yeah. More than likely, she was an enemy. That would explain why she didn't look like she belonged in this world. Maybe she even allied herself with Harry the Hunter, a heartless guy who threatens to kill anyone who disobeys him with his shotgun. Maybe that was what she'd been scanning for.

One thing was for sure: She didn't like Rocky.

With a little smirk, Rocky summoned the Keytar into his paws, and started to play it loudly. The robot obviously took that as a challenge, because she fired another shot at Rocky. This time, Rocky rolled out of the way in the nick of time, so the shot only left a trail of dust kicked up in its wake.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get!" Rocky declared, running straight toward her, ready to smash his Keytar onto her metal body.

"NO!"

All of a sudden, Rocky felt himself fall over and tumble across the ground in awkward somersaults, covering himself in dirt in the process. Someone had tripped him. He felt it. And it definitely wasn't the robot who stood before him, now staring at him with a somewhat amused expression, her eyes now curled into upward crescents.

Rocky turned around to see what he tripped over...A box. A tiny brown box that he swore hadn't been there a few seconds ago but was there now was what rudely interrupted his fight. Did someone throw it? The voice that shouted "no" didn't belong to the white robot.

One second of staring at the box later, his question was answered. Underneath the box, two yellow and brown treads shakily folded out, and on both sides of the box, long skinny arms came out, attached to three fingered hands that looked like shovels, and on top of the box unfolded what appeared to be binoculars. Another robot, Rocky realized, watching the binoculars peer at him shyly. He could see on the inside of the binoculars that the box-robot was trying to focus his eyes to train on Rocky, though he only succeeded in tilting the binoculars downward, making a sad and scared expression. Unlike the egg robots' cold and chilling blue eyes, the box's deep dark eyes were innocent and warm, mixed with curiosity and wonder. Its dirty rusterior and body made it look much more like an inhabitant of the world. Rocky could feel himself immediately soften upon seeing the box's pitiful eyes. Odd. A few seconds ago he just wanted to pummel whoever decided to trip him.

"Hey, there." Rocky greeted it gently. "Uh...Who are you?"

Rocky's relaxed voice must've calmed the robot down. Immediately, he stuck one of his shovel hands out and shook Rocky's paw.

"W...Waaaaaalllleeeeee..." Its voice was masculine, and it too sounded like someone speaking through a computer, only more high pitched like he swallowed a touch of helium. Rocky took his hand back and awkwardly wiped the dirt from his paw on his diving suit. "Nice to meet you. I'm Rocky."

"Rrrrrooooocck..." He stuttered out curiously. Rocky involuntarily grinned. "Rocky." He repeated.

"Roooocckyyy." Rocky chuckled a bit. So there was a friendly source in this world. Well, there goes the "finding a companion" part of his regular world visits. Though he still didn't understand why "Walle" had tripped him.

"Say, why did you stop me anyway? That robot behind me-I think she's dangerous."

"...Eeeevvvaaa..." Walle stated, actually sounding wistful. Then he rolled forward, past Rocky, and right next to the egg shaped robot. He pointed at her again and said excitedly, "Eeeevvvaaa!" To Rocky's shock, she started giggling!

"You know her? Er, you know Eva?" Rocky asked. "Eva" turned to look at Rocky, the happiness again replaced by her cold glare. "Eve." She said sternly. Rocky glared back again. Walle seemed to like her, but that didn't mean he had to. Though that was a little interesting-Walle didn't seem like the type to befriend someone like Eva-er, Eve. Rocky figured she'd blast anyone to pieces, no matter how friendly. But the way she laughed with the way Walle said her name(didn't even mind him getting it wrong, so what was wrong with Rocky getting it wrong?), and the fact that she wasn't pointing her gun at him was enough to convince Rocky that they were friends or something like that.

"Well why did you attack me?" Rocky asked Eve. "What are you even looking for?"

"Classified." She turned herself away from Rocky, her eyes now neutral ovals. That just fueled Rocky's suspicion.

"Do you know this grumpy guy named Harry?" Okay, so that was a stupid question. If Eve was with her, why would she give that away? But at that point, it was the best way of getting the truth out that Rocky could think of.

However, Eve didn't ignore him or answer with an innocent "no". Instead, she looked very bemused.

Well, that was good enough for him.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

A horrendous loud beeping sound filled the air, and Rocky saw a red blinking light that was going off on the top of Walle's boxed body. He looked past Rocky and Eve with a look of horror on his face.

"Eva!" He kept gesturing wildly in different directions, and stuttering out his and Eve's name so quickly and desperately. He knew something that they didn't.

"What is it, Walle?" Rocky asked. Walle was still panicking and waving his arms all over the place. Eve seemed to think that he was trying to attack, because she drew her gun out again and aimed it threateningly at Walle. Rocky couldn't help but roll his eyes. Did Eve NOT notice how scared he sounded? He didn't even look like he was armed with any sort of weapon, and mere seconds ago she was smiling at Walle like they were long time friends. She seriously needed to take a chill pill...

Rocky finally turned around to see what Walle was going crazy about, and his eyes widened in horror. Coming toward them at break neck speed was a gigantic cloud of dust and sand and flying garbage, so thick he couldn't see anything past it. Since Walle's annoying alarm still kept beeping, Rocky assumed that this was a very common occurence. But Walle was a robot-he wouldn't have to worry about breathing any of that in, or getting the sand caught in his eyes or anything else that Rocky would have to worry about without his space suit.

It was coming closer. Rocky tried to make a run for it, but the sandstorm was quicker. It enveloped him with its violent winds, blinding him with dust and debris and making it impossible to see. Sora looked all around, held his breath, but he could only see garbage, flying debris and his space helmet. A twinge of fear started to spread through him when he realized that if he stayed in the sandstorm any longer, he'd freeze. But he couldn't call for help. He was so scared. He could only utter a weak squeak.

"WALLE!" Eve was screaming. Oh, sure, now she wanted his help. At least SHE didn't have to worry about breathing or dying. "WAAAALLEEEEEE!" Rocky wasn't sure if Walle could even hear her now. He wasn't surprised if he had already found shelter somewhere. Oh, why did he decide to step into THIS world of all the other ones? This was only the second time he'd made a portal and stepped into another world, his first portal being able to shrink himself small. He should've just shrunken down to the size of a chicken, or at least brought Rubble and Anna with him. They probably would know what to do, and now he was going to collapse and fail his heart's desire of finding Skye, saving Chase, and returning home. Damn it, he couldn't stop then. He didn't want to freeze. They would freeze too. The worlds would fall, his friends, everyone...No. Someone save him NOW-

A hand gripped his foreleg. A cold, rough, dirty, metal, three fingered hand. It started trying to drag him, lead him somewhere. Too weak to fight back and so desperate to find shelter, he obliged and pushed himself to follow the hand, rapidly running out of breath.

He scarcely heard the sound of something opening, like a garage door, then he felt himself being pulled up a metal ridge, then across warmer, steel floor. Behind him he heard that garage noise again, only this time, the sandstorm started to sound a little muffled, so he figured that the door was blocking it out. Rocky finally took his chance to breathe a generous gulp of air before taking off his air helmet. Blinking his eyes open, he saw, to his relief, Walle was in front of him, staring at him worriedly. When he saw Rocky's eyes open, he let out a happy coo and then moved to his side. Rocky turned and noticed that Eve was right next to him, staring around in wonder and awe.

Rocky also glanced around curiously, admiring some of the objects before him. He seemed to be in an old truck or garage of sorts, with racks upon racks on either side of the truck filled to the brim with odd knick-knacks, toys, and decorations that Rocky would've taken for granted on any other day. Attached to the ceiling were rows of christmas lights, lighting up and giving a warm and inviting atmosphere that calmed his soul and made him feel safe and sound, like he was back in his home world surrounded by his dear friends. Walle himself treaded to the back of the truck and held his arms out in a humble "welcome" pose.

"This is where you live?" Rocky mused, picking up a broken train off of one of the racks and tinkering with its wheels. Walle nodded and beckoned Eve forward. The latter was still looking around, wondering what objects were in the racks, what they did, where they came from, and why Walle seemed interested in them. Though Eve was very interested in them too since she'd never seen them before, she just figured that since Walle'd lived there for years, he'd know all about everything in the room.

Rocky saw Walle first pluck off one of his own eyes, which Rocky now noticed was slightly cracked, before pressing a big red button that was next to the left rack. The rack started to rotate forward so that another rack came forward instead, and Walle picked up another binocular eye to replace the broken one. As soon as the new eye was attached, he shifted his binoculars until they were evenly matched and balanced. Probably to maintain focus. Then he took out a rubix cube and a lightbulb from the right rack, handing the light bulb to Eve and the rubix cube to Rocky.

"Uh, thanks I guess." Rocky stated awkwardly, twisting the cube's knobs in an attempt to solve the puzzle. He was never good at those things...

Next to him, where Eve was floating, there was a bright light. Rocky turned around to see that Eve was holding the lightbulb-and it was lighting up.

"Whoa!" Walle exclaimed, taking the light bulb back for a second and poking it curiously. It didn't come back on. He gave it back to Eve, and it lit up immediately on contact with her fingers. Rocky failed to suppress a whistle of impressment. "Okay, I'll admit that it is pretty cool...Hey, can you solve this?" He handed Eve the rubix cube, and she started tinkering with it like Rocky did earlier. But in matter of two seconds, she'd already solved it. "Wow..." Rocky took the rubix cube back and examined it with slight amazement.

Walle, who had just grabbed a tape from the rack next to him, handed said item to Eve before taking the rubix cube from Rocky, also examining it with amazement. Rocky had to admit, she was pretty smar-

"AH!" Rocky nearly jumped out of his fur when he heard Walle's terrified squeal. Looking at Eve, he saw what the problem was: Eve had stretched the cassette right out of the tape. Walle snatched the tape out of Eve's hand and rewound it hastily back inside. Rocky felt like yelling at Eve again for messing with one of Walle's things when she obviously should've known better, but he stopped himself upon seeing Eve's sorry expression that was directed at Walle. Walle gave her a nod, his own way of saying "it's okay", and placed the tape inside a VCR which he happened to have at the very end of the room, tapping his hands together nervously.

The static of the small TV screen atop the VCR was replaced with lively people dancing and singing in the streets to a cheerful tune.

"Put on your sunday clothes when you feel down and out..." The lyrics flowed through the room, lifting everyone's spirits-especially Walle. He was just relieved that the tape wasn't broken. Eve, when she glanced at the screen, let out an "ooh..." of wonder and her blue light started scanning the screen. Rocky stared at her in confusion. Did she just think that whatever she was looking for was trapped in the TV?

Walle and Eve were busy interacting with each other and not paying any attention to him, so Rocky took that as a good opportunity to try and sort out his thoughts.

The song that was playing sounded eerily familiar to him- it could've been from one of the cheerful beats that Skye had played on her drums. She'd had a thing for catchy beats, and there was one in particular that she claimed was "the bestest of them all!". After days of constant begging, pleading, and whining, Rocky and Zuma had finally obliged and came to her pup house the next day to watch. Rocky, during some parts, felt like dozing off since he couldn't understand what all the people on the screen were talking about anyway, but whenever a song came on...It was actually pretty fun. Most of the songs were very cheery and upbeat, and Skye'd be thumping on her drums trying to match the rhythm. Zuma and Rocky giggled at her, and she'd stuck her tongue at them playfully.

As the song he listened to played on and on, he was sure of it-that was the movie that he and his friends had been watching...Rocky bit his lip and unconsciously patted his neck where his pup tag lay, safe and sound. Now more than ever he wished that he could find them. Skye was probably going on a helicopter flight-but she had run out of fuel, having no idea what to do or where to find some. She wasn't as safe as he hoped. And Chase could very be angry. Though he'd recieved hints that he was ok, possibly looking for his time travel portal, there was a nagging at the back of his head that filled him with dark thoughts. The same dark thoughts that clouded his head while he was out in that sandstorm. That was why he'd been panicking earlier-if he froze, his friends could be devastated. And it would be all his fault. Even if he was frozen, Rocky would be overflowed to the brim with guilt and sadness that he'd abandoned the most important people in his life.

Now Rocky felt like he was wasting too much time-he had to get out, now, and start back on finding them again. But no, he couldn't. The sandstorm was still raging outside, so he activated his pup tag to contact Anna. "Hello?" said another voice. "Hi, it's Rocky," said Rocky. "I'm visiting another world and I'm going to spend the night with 2 friendly robots." "Ok," said Anna. "Have fun." Not wanting to depress himself, he decided to see what Walle and Eve were doing now. Eve had just picked a cigarette lighter off one of the racks, and flicked it open. Then she pressed on a button, and a small flame erupted. "Ooh..." Both Walle and Eve appeared to be entranced by its light and warmth, and just kept staring at it like it was a treasure.

"And that is all...that love's about..."

Rocky looked back at the VCR. A different scene was playing this time. A man and a woman were staring at each other lovingly, and holding their hands.

"And we'll recall...when time runs out..." Rocky felt much better now that Anna knew where he was. When they came upon the very scene that was playing in the truck, Skye would gently tap the cymbals. Rocky had rolled his eyes and turned to Chase, sticking his tongue out and pointing to his mouth. Chase chuckled lightly.

Then, much to his surprise and embarassment, he felt something warm and smooth grip his paw gently. He turned around and saw that it was Skye-she was still staring at the screen with watery eyes, but her right paw was holding Rocky's as she watched the couple in the film do the same thing. The warmth of her paw holding his along with her loving expression was enough to send Rocky over the edge: he blushed deeply and involuntarily squeezed her paw back-but not too tight. He felt sweat form on his face and he was very sure that Anna had cranked the temperature up a couple hundred degrees. When he turned to Rubble with a desperate expression on his face, Rubble just smirked.

When the scene finally ended, Skye had sighed dreamily and then stared at her paw in Rocky's. For a few seconds, her expression appeared mixed, then it broke into a radiant smile along with a light blush appearing on her cheeks, and she took her paw out, but not before stating: "Never forget that it only takes a moment".

Even now, thinking about that memory sent conflicting feelings of chills running down his spine, yet having warmth creep into his face.

Trying to shake the embarrasing thought out of his head, he focused on Walle and Eve again. Walle, instead of focusing on the flame, was now staring intently at Eve's hand. Sometimes, he would look back at the TV where the couple was holding hands, then unsurely look at Eve's hand. Eve didn't seem to notice-she was still gazing at the flame. Walle slowly inched his own hand out, though it was shaking uncontrollably with fear. The couple in the movie was doing it to show companionship and love. If he did the same to Eve, maybe she would love him back. It just had to work...Just a few more inches...almost there...

Eve suddenly looked at him, saw his hand approaching her own, and abruptly slid her fingers back into her edgeless arm. Her eyes were expressionless now, if not slightly accusing. Walle awkwardly drew his hand back, tracing nervous circles into the floor.

Rocky recognized that look in Walle's eyes. It was the exact same look that Skye's helicopter had given her out of embarrassment when she dreampt of it coming to life, only it seemed to be magnified and mixed with loneliness. He didn't just think of Eve as a new friend-he was in love with her. Head over heels in love. Rocky gave Walle a look of sympathy. Eve didn't appear to return the feelings. She did appear to like him, but not in that kind of way. She seemed more dedicated to searching for...whatever she was searching for. Rocky found himself glaring at Eve again(this time she didn't notice though, she was looking at the TV with interest). Whenever he had a mission to do, the PAW Patrol would always work together. He knew that protecting the worlds were important, but he always found himself caring more for his friend's safety above all. Eve looked like the exact opposite: Mission always comes first. But how could she ignore how alone Walle was?

Rocky was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud CLANG. Walle was searching for another object from one of the racks, and a trash lid had landed on his head. Rocky chuckled a bit, and Eve did the same.

Finally, Walle found what he was looking for: a boot. Rocky raised an eyebrow in confusion. Why in the world would he collect something like THAT? Sure the other objects in the truck weren't very interesting to humans, but Walle didn't seem to have collected a bunch of smelly boots besides that one in particular.

But upon closer inspection, Rocky noticed that it wasn't the boot that had taken Walle's interest, but what was IN the boot. Walle was touching it delicately, like it was fragile doll that would break unless he was extremely careful. And Rocky could understand why: it was a plant. A tiny little sapling, green and growing and perfectly healthy. Rocky would've skipped over it had he traveled to any other world, but since this planet was covered in nothing but garbage and no colors but brown, the green plant stood out like a shining beacon of hope. The world wasn't completely dead, it seemed to say.

"Ooh..." Eve also saw the plant, and she began scanning it.

Beep, beep, beep...dingdingding!

Rocky zipped around to Eve. Her scanner, instead of making a negative "diiink", was instead beeping like crazy, and there was a green light that was blinking on her chest. Eve's eyes, instead of neutral ovals, were now impossibly wide circles, like she was in shock. Then her body suddenly grew incredibly stiff, and her chest slid open like an automatic door, and a blue light appeared out of it and circled the plant. An inhuman whirring sound came out of Eve, and the plant was lifted into the air and placed in Eve's chest. Then the "door" slid shut, along with Eve's arms and even her head, that snapped against her body, now full giving her an egg shaped appearance. Her black screen was completely black, no LED blue eyes to show that she was still awake. The only sign showing that she was still alive was a green blinking light on her chest that also showed a plant emblem.

"...Eva?" Walle looked hopelessly confused. When Eve didn't respond, he started to look scared. Rocky felt a little bit of that too. What the hell just happened? Did they break her? Why would she react to the plant like that? Was she...was THAT what she was looking for? Great, she found it. Hooray. But what why did she just shut off?

"Eve?" Rocky asked as well, hoping for a response to at least cheer Walle up. Seeing Walle so scared and sad just stirred pity in Rocky's heart. "Eva?" Walle's voice rose in despair. "E-E-Eva!"

Rocky sighed hopelessly. It looked like he would be needing help from Skye and Marshall again. As much as he wanted to call them, he didn't want Walle all alone without someone to interact with. Judging by how lonesome everything was in the world, Walle and Eve had been the only two souls to walk the planet. Even if Eve didn't return Walle's feelings, the robot still needed a companion more than anything else. Walle saved his life. He was kind to him. He offered him and Eve shelter and asked for no reward. Giving him a companion was the least Rocky could do. Besides, it wasn't like he never got sidetracked in any of the other worlds he visited. Rocky gave himself a firm nod.

"Don't worry, Walle." He said. His voice was firm. His mind was made up. "I'll help you get her back up."

Walle gave him the utmost grateful look Rocky'd ever recieved. Rocky smiled back reassuringly.

Seeing Walle happy again would be very well worth the wait.


	2. WALL-E's Care

The next morning, the sandstorm was gone. Walle and Rocky set off to work.

Walle led Rocky, who was pulling on Eve, on top of his garage and gestured where Rocky had to set Eve. She was actually very light-though that could've been because she was still levitating despite being shut down.

"So how are we gonna fix her, Walle?" Rocky asked.

Walle held his hand as if to say "hold on a second", then from the top of his box he unfolded solar panels that reflected the bright sunlight. Walle pointed to his chest, and Rocky noticed for the first time that he had a read out on his chest that displayed yellow lines that appeared to be only half way there, but they started moving up with a loud beeping noise the longer Walle kept his solar panels out. When it reached the highest level, there was a musical "buuum..." and Walle folded the panels back in, shaking his head slightly. He moved around for a second, and Rocky realized that he seemed to be going faster than usual.

"Oh, you're recharging!" Rocky mused. Walle nodded and pointed back to Eve with a hopeful look on his face. Suddenly it all made sense: he thought that Eve just needed to be recharged. While that did seem to be a pretty good reason, Rocky couldn't suppress a twinge of doubt. She may have been a robot like Walle, but she was completely different in design and mind. More than likely, keeping her out in the sun would have no effect on her...But at this point, they really had no other choice. And maybe, Rocky thought with a sanguine smile, if they waited long enough, Eve would finally decide to turn back on again. It was all just a matter of time, right? She was still alive after all.

"Okay. Good idea, Walle."

So the two of them sat there, just staring at Eve's vacant form, waiting with eager eyes. Eventually, that eagerness melted into hopefulness, then to awkwardness, then finally to boredom. They'd been sitting on the top of the truck for hours now, and Eve didn't show a single hint that she was waking up.

The blazing sun was starting to get to Rocky. Sweat was pouring down his temple, his skin was turning red, and he wished desperately that he could take off his space suit. But he didn't want to leave Walle, who appeared uneffected by the drought. In fact, he looked perfectly comfortable. Rocky snorted a bit. He wished that he was just wearing his PAW Patrol vest which would be much cooler.

Rocky suddenly remembered-he was still carrying a water bottle. It always helped him cool down. Taking of his helmet, he activated his pup pack and drank some water through his air helmet and sighed with relief. A wave of freshness and relaxation overtook him, he desperately needed that. At least it would tide him over until Eve woke up. IF she woke up...Rocky stubbornly pushed that thought out of his head. She'd wake up. It was only a matter of time...

Next to him, Walle was messing with his treads, circling them around and playing them to the rhythm of the cheery song from the movie they'd heard yesterday. Rocky, wanting to make things a little more fun, summoned his Keytar to-

"Whoa!" Walle stared at Rocky's instrument in awe, and Rocky smiled in amusement. He'd almost forgotten that Walle hadn't seen the Keytar yet. If he thought the stuff he collected was amazing, wait til he got a load of what THIS baby could do.

He stood up and started to play "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" on his keytar. A beautiful electronic sound could be heard. Walle was focusing and unfocusing his eyes so he could try and see he could hear the tune. Then he looked up at Rocky and held his hands out eagerly.

"Oh, you wanna hold it?" Rocky held back a snicker as he obliged. He couldn't wait to hear how surprised he'd be when-

As expected, the Keytar reappeared in Rocky's paws after Walle had held it for about six seconds. He chortled a little when he saw how amazed Walle looked. Suddenly, Walle excitedly grabbed the Keytar again, and it dissapeared into Rocky's paws again. He grabbed it once more. It dissapeared once more. He grabbed it. It dissapeared. He grabbed it. It dissapeared. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat...

Rocky briefly wondered what Walle found so exciting about this before he saw that the little robot wasn't staring at the Keytar, but listening to all the sounds that it was making everytime it dissapeared and reappeared.

...Oh. He was mostly interested in the sounds...

All at once, Rocky let out a fit of uncontrolled laughter. He could feel himself fall back against the roof and shake with it for so long that he was running out of breath. He barely saw Walle next to him, who was shaking a little. But when his own laughter faded, he heard that Walle was actually shaking with some laughter as well. Though it sounded more nervous and quiet, his eyes remained completely happy. Rocky regained himself, and gave him a fond pat on the head, like a brother would do to his younger sibling.

"You're amazing, you know that?"

...RUMBLE...

With a small gasp, Rocky and Walle looked straight ahead of them. In the distance, slowly coming closer, were a bunch of thick gray clouds. Not brown and dusty like sandstorm clouds, but gray and wet like...thunderstorm clouds.

Before he could question why the two hadn't noticed the storm clouds until now, Walle was already pulling on Rocky's paw while gesturing to the door of the garage desperately.

"Alright, I understand. I'll grab you and Eve so we can-"

Walle shook his head quickly and pointed to himself and Eve, before pointing firmly to the top of the roof. Rocky stared at him in shock.

"You can't just stand up here in the storm, you could be-!"

Walle grabbed an umbrella(it was on the roof the whole time) and gave him a reassuring thumbs up as he treaded to Eve and held it over her. Unfortunately, there was only room for one, so Walle would not be under it.

"Walle, you don't have to do this. Besides I'm not exactly sure if 'recharging' would work if she was in the rain with an umbrella over her head...And I can stay beside you if you'd like." Rocky knew it was hopeless. Walle's mind appeared to be made up. But the poor thing didn't deserve to stay out in such miserable weather. He at least needed lively company...

Walle firmly shook his head and pointed to the garage door again. He gave in another reassuring thumbs up though he was starting to quiver a little. Rocky, finding no other thing to say that would convince Walle, finally nodded and trudged into the safety of the garage.  
XXX BAM!

A flash of lightning. A painful warble. Rocky winced for the hundredth time as he heard Walles pitiful voice. He didn't have to be a genuis to figure out that lightning was attracted to Walle and seemed very keen on making him as miserable as possible. He was up there suffering, and Rocky was relaxing inside the garage.

Rocky should've fought harder. He should've just stood his ground outside and at least make sure that he could block out all lightning with his Keytar. Sure it would've given him a painful shock, but he would be protected by his suit...

It was hard not to grow fond of the little robot. He was so pure and kind. He had all the innocence and curiosity of a child, and the fact was so willing to care for and protect the ones that mattered most to him had just been proven about half an hour ago. If Walle cared at all about his own safety, he would've allowed Rocky to stand beside him. But no, he only wanted him safe and dry. And he wanted Eve to wake up, while not being disturbed by the horrible weather. Such a generous machine. Not at all like he'd seen in movies-he'd seen enough sci-fi films to figure that all robots were cold and unfeeling. Eve seemed to be the very definition of that, though she did show a few basic emotions like happiness, guilt, and curiosity. But other than that, she was just like them.

Walle on the other hand was...almost human. He had more complex emotions of joy, anguish, loneliness, and even love. Who designed him like that? Rocky would have to meet him and thank him someday, if he could that is. The fact remained that the world was desolate, and Walle and Eve were the only ones left. How long had it been since Walle had seen another soul? Eve looked like she just got there-she was so clean. Walle must've been there for years. Rocky only knew a little bit about computers or robots, but he knew that they could last a very long time with the proper tools. And Walle's state just screamed how long he'd been around. This only made him more sympathetic. He needed someone. Someone to love, and love him back. Eve had to wake up now. If she stuck around long enough, maybe even she would learn-

Rocky jumped. Walle had gotten struck by lightning again.  
XXX One uneasy sleep later, Rocky woke up midmorning to see Walle playing a game of some sort on the TV. When he saw the screen, he realized that he was playing "Pong". Marshall used to try to win Pup Pup Boogie when he had nothing else to do. The score on screen was 8000 to 0.

Rocky had a feeling he knew who was losing.

"Hey, Walle..." Walle turned to him with a happy look on his face.

"Any sign of waking up?"

Walle stared at Eve, who was right next to him, blankly before letting out a sad little sigh. If that wasn't a clear answer, Rocky didn't know what was.

"I'm so sorry..." Rocky suddenly remembered with an edge of horror that he'd been in this world for about three days now. Anna and Rubble knew where he was but had no idea when he was coming home. They were without a doubt very worried about their friend who said he'd be back in a few hours. Rocky had to leave, but that meant...leaving Walle behind, all by his lonesome again.

More than anything, Rocky wanted to stay for just a little bit longer. A week. Two weeks. However long it took to see Eve back up again, but he only had permission to stay one night. Skye and Anna would wonder where he was. It was either stay with Walle and delay his friends, or go back home, but leave Walle by himself. Whichever choice he made, one consequence would happen. Rocky almost felt like wailing with despair.

"Walle...I have to leave." To his surprise, Walle didn't look like he was shocked like Rocky expected him to be. He just looked sad and hopeless, like he knew that he was going to that. "I'm sorry...It's just my friends, they need me, and I've been delaying them, so..." No more words needed to be said. Walle nodded sadly but with understanding, then he grabbed Eve's body and gestured with his free hand to come outside. Rocky nodded and obeyed.

After reluctantly leaving Eve by herself on the roof, Walle led Rocky back to his portal, and Rocky thanked him.

"Are you sure you're okay with leaving Eve for a while?"

Walle paused for a second, then he nodded. "Dir...rect...tive." He stuttered.

Directive? Oh, what he was built to do! "What are you built for?"

Walle chirped happily and excitedly used his shovel hands to gather a load of trash off of one of the several piles of garbage. They entered his cubed body, and Walle shuddered for a few seconds while he grunted in concentration. Then he opened his body again, and a cube of trash fell out. Walle pointed to it and stated, "Ta-Da."

Rocky stared at it- at least now he knew who made all the skyscrapers. Along with the reason that he left Eve for the second. It didn't really seem like he had a choice since he was built to do that. But the fact that he'd been ignoring his directive for the past few days just to take care of Eve just added to how caring he was...Rocky felt himself choke up. If he stayed any longer, he may change his mind.

"Well, I'm gonna go Walle." Walle nodded sadly and stuck out his hand. But Rocky, instead of taking it, grabbed Walle and embraced him in a hug. "Whoa!" Walle exclaimed.

"I'm so sorry..." Rocky murmured so quietly Walle could scarcely hear him. "Sometime, I'll come back. I promise." Rocky wasn't sure whether Walle hugged him back to mimic his actions, or to comfort Sora as well as himself. But if he knew the robot well enough, then he was able to tell that it was the latter.

When he let go of him, and Walle's back was turned, Rocky summoned his pup tag to call Chase.

"Rocky! How was your sleepover?" As expected, the radio crackled so loud that Rocky had to turn the volume down to prevent deafness.

"It was ok, Chase..."

"Are you coming home soon? We looked everywhere, but no matter where we looked, you were no where in sight! You were supposed to come home this morning! You're lucky you..." Rocky's pup tag suddenly got disabled. Though touched by their concern, Rocky felt a flash of annoyance. He didn't want to leave WALL-E just yet. But before he could try to call Chase again, he remembered the sandstorm and how he had silently begged for someone to help. That was enough to shut him back up.

"Look, can you just pick me up later? I'm near a...near...a..."

Rocky's jaw refused to work correctly after what he just saw. Inches away from Walle's truck, a huge rocket had landed, and a claw was slowly edging out.

"Rocky? ROCKY? What's going-?" His pup tag shorted out. Though a part of him felt a little bit happy. In that rocket were probably more people, and that meant that Walle would have a friend to talk to, and if there were other robots, then he would be able to ask how to fix Eve and-wait a minute. Why was the giant claw clutching Eve...?

Rocky gasped and turned to tell Walle, but he saw that said robot was already off like a shot toward the rocket. Lucky for him, the claw was moving even slower now that it had Eve in its grasp, but Walle wasn't fast enough on his treads. He'd never make it in time...

Without a second thought, Rocky found himself running at breakneck speed, tripling Walle's frantic pace. When he reached him, he scooped up Walle on his back(he was surprisingly light), and strutted ever faster toward the rocket. The entire time, Walle was screaming in a frightened voice, "EVAAAAA!"

The rocket was warming up its engines. If Rocky slowed down for even a second, it would be off before they could even grab it. But at long last, they had reached it, and Rocky noticed a latter of some sort on the rocket's side, facing toward the duo. They'd be able to grab it and hang on.

Rocky practically threw Walle onto the ladder, and Walle was able to keep an iron grip. Rocky climbed it high enough so that he was just below Walle, and in the nick of time too. The rocket had already started its launch.

Rocky had underestimated how great the force would be of a rocket flying into space. The wind whipped through his body like knives and felt bits of his helmet shaking. He got too dizzy to open his eyes out of the winds force, and he could feel his mouth whipping back from the G-force. He could just barely hear Walle's high pitched terrified scream, and if Rocky wasn't so dizzy, he would scream to the skies again about WHY he didn't listen to Chase.

At one point Sora had squinted one eye open, and he saw past some thick brown clouds a whole row of satellites with a logo that said "BnL". And behind them, a row of stars began to open up and they were approaching space at rapid speed-

Wait, space? He couldn't go to space! How the hell was he supposed to TELL ANNA WHERE HE WAS-

One of the satellites painfully collided with his helmet.

Black.


	3. Rocky In The Stars

"Rocky..."

Rocky clenched his eyes tightly shut and mumbled, "Quiet, I'm sleeping..." He had a horrible headache that he'd been trying to sleep off for a while now, though the rest of his body felt unusually comfortable. The normally one inch thick bed that he, Chase, and Zuma were always forced to sleep on in the PAW Patroller felt lighter than air. In fact, it didn't feel like he was laying on it at all. He felt like he was floating, like those weird dreams that he used to have when his journey first began. But this time, he didn't take an unexpected fall. He remained floating, and the pleasant weightlessness that soared through his body was more than enough to have Rocky drifting back to sleep...

But he couldn't, because the voice that kept calling his name wouldn't stop. And it kept getting louder with distress. "Rooockyyyy!"

Giving in, Rocky slowly opened his eyes and stated, still half asleep, "Alright, Chase, I'm up..."

But what he saw wasn't the red and white walls of the PAW Patroller, but the vastness of outer space. Did he fall asleep against the window...?

Suddenly, it all came back in a flash. Walle. Eve. The trash planet. The rocket ship. Pain...SPACE!

He was alive, and he was breathing in space. "AH!"

He felt something in his paw jolt. When he looked at his hand to see what it was, he saw that Walle was grasping it, and he was shivering, though he looked happy that Rocky woke up. Rocky gave him a smile to show that he was fine. He didn't shout because he was scared or anything, he was just surprised. The fact that he was still alive even though he was in the endless vacume of space broke so many laws of physics that Rocky would have a fine of one billion bucks. It was probably the fact that he was still within Walle's world-if they were out of the world, he would've seen his PAW portal, along with the silhouettes of other worlds. Rocky brought up the theory in the world of Port Royal that the reason they were unaffected by a curse was because they came from different worlds. So the reason Rocky could breathe in space was because he was wearing his spacesuit.

Walle had been holding his paw the whole time so he wouldn't float away. His other hand was still holding the ladder of the rocket. Rocky must've been out for a while-he could feel sweat forming on his paw that was still being held by the little robot. Neither were even sure where the rocket was heading if it was heading anywhere at all.

For the past few hours, Walle had been busying himself by watching the starry skies that they crossed while glancing at Rocky's unconscious form on every occasion to see if he was waking up. For a while, he'd been afraid that Rocky was shut down and unresponsive just like Eve, but his suit somehow protected him from being knocked out. Nothing could hurt him.

Now that Rocky was awake, watching the universe pass them by was a lot more fun and interesting. Both would point out different constellations, shooting stars, and odd looking clouds. It never got boring because there literally was never enough to see. Rocky himself found this space gazing very relaxing-if he Flutter and Skye would travel through the space between worlds, there were always enemy ships filled to the brim with Heartless and Nobodies that he was forced to avoid or attack, so he never had a chance to sit back and admire the view. But here, there weren't any signs of enemies to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere. At one point when Rocky explained about the PAW Patrol to Walle, he was pretty sure that the robot had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. But Walle was smiling at him enthusiastically, just happy that Rocky seemed to be enjoying himself. He gave another longing glance at Eve when Rocky's head was turned. When the rocket stopped, he would continue to find a way to bring Eve back. He never should have left her side for a second.

An hour later, the two looked straight ahead to see that they were heading toward some ominous purple clouds. And the rocket appeared to be slowing down. Were the clouds the rocket's destination?

Then they saw it. Behind the clouds, hidden by the darkness, was a ship. A space ship. But it looked very peculiar-more like a gigantic cruise ship that was multiplied 200 times. Rocky thought the rocket was big- but that ship made the rocket seem like the size of a mere ant. On the bow of the ship, the words "Axiom" stood out in bright red letters, followed by the same logo of the satellite that crashed into Rocky: "BnL"; though parts of the word looked slightly faded. The rocket itself turned sideways like a car going into paralel park, and it started to shift ever so slowly near the bottom of the ship. Two long blue lasers appeared out of the ship and were aimed at the bow and stern of the rocket, dragging it, and its unknown passengers, inside.

When the door behind the rocket closed, the weightlessness of space wore off. Rocky and Walle collapsed on the ladder, tumbling ungracefully onto the bridge now attached to the rocket. Both felt a little heavy due to side effects of drifting in space for the past few hours. But at least they were at a destination.

Steel gray walls were in every direction Rocky found, and elevators and mechanically sliding doors were at every corner. Some panels that held robotic arms were coming out and taking care of the rocket: Repairing broken parts, refueling, cleaning bits of dirt, and they even had the courtesy to attach a new bumper sticker. "I love BnL" It displayed proudly. The entire room itself was big enough to hold ten more rockets. Rocky could only imagine how big the rest of the ship could be.

But now was not the time to be sightseeing. It was back to business. They had to get Eve out of there-

Oh, speaking of Eve, her vacant body was suddenly right in front of them in some kind of box, alongside several other robots that looked exactly like her- only difference was that Eve was the only one with a blinking green light on her chest.

"Eva..." Walle reached for his Eve, looking like he was going to pry her from the box. To help, Rocky used the claw tool to pry Eve out of the box. As if the machine sensed Walle's goal, a claw opened out of a hatch in the ceiling and grabbed Eve, dragging her to another part of the room that was, thankfully, only a few a feet far. Only downside was that there was a pretty long jump from the bridge to the ground. Rocky picked up Walle, who had grown worried when he saw Eve getting carried away, and leapt off the bridge, landing a little more gracefully than when they first came.

Eve was still floating in the same place the claw had put her, only now she was again lined up with her sister probes. Walle eagerly treaded to where she was and was about to pull her away, but then Rocky shouted in an alarming tone, "Walle, hide! Someone's coming!"

Walle panicked and scrambled around as he tried to find a place to hide. Eventually, he settled upon getting behind Eve and folding into a tiny box. He was completely unnoticeable if you looked from the front of Eve. Rocky on the other hand was too tall to crouch into an uncomfortably small form and hide behind a probe, so he took to diving behind the one of the rocket wings and peering over it.

Approaching the probes was another sort of robot, white and levitating like Eve, except it was shaped like a long skinny trapezoid, and where eyes should've been it instead had a red light that was blazing and ringing like a police siren. It was unusually tiny, so it didn't appear all that threatening. No, the threatening looking ones were the robots behind it. They were rectangularly shaped, and on top of their heads were yellow flashing sirens. On the front of their bodies were computer screens of some sort that currently displayed a black blank screen. They towered behind the red sirening robot like dwarfish(they only grew up to reach Rocky's waist) but bulky bodyguards. Like Eve, they were probably armed with a weapon of some sort.

The red sirened robot stopped before each of the probes, scanning them all for a matter of seconds. Finally he stopped on the Eve that Walle loved, and he froze all of a sudden after he finished scanning her. Then an ear splitting alarm rang throughout the entire room, and every single light in the room turned as green as Eve's blinking light for some reason. And the blank screens on the bulky bodyguard robots now showed the same plant insignia that Eve had.

A red light shot out of a hole in the red siren robot's chest and encircled Eve. Like an invisible hand was picking her up, the red light forced her body onto a cart that happened to be nearby. It didn't even notice Walle, who was now without a hiding place and staring at Eve quite frightfully. The cart carrying Eve, and now the red siren robot too, seemed to act on its own accord as it followed a blue line that stretched into the mechanical sliding doors into another part of the ship.

"Eva!" Walle immediately chased after her, and Rocky followed suit. He really should've seen this coming-adventure, whether he liked it or not, always found him faster than he could blink. Not that he complained all that much. He was used to it by now.

Though he wasn't really expecting what he saw in the bigger and angular room: thousands upon thousands of robots were passing by on a steel gray road. Rocky could barely make out just one.

Eve's cart was turning again. With a jolt, Walle immediately followed her again, Rocky coming up just behind him.

Now what was in the next room was what surprised Rocky the most.

There were humans. It took Rocky a few seconds to digest the shocking information. In fact, it wasn't the fact that there were humans here that shocked him, it was what they looked like. Every single one that passed by were abnormally obese. It wasn't just a small portion of the humans, it was every one. Though it wasn't the kind of fat that Rocky had seen normally. The fat on these humans looked a little tight, making it seem more like baby fat. Were these humans just enlarged babies? Rocky actually found himself hoping that was true...

But no. They were all talking regularly. At first he thought that they'd all been talking to themselves, but they were actually talking to these virtual screens that were floating in front of their faces, provided by the hovering chairs that all of them were sitting on. None of them even seemed to notice anyone else that were passing them by. They were just way too absorbed in the screen, almost hypnotized by them. Maybe they were so fat since all they appeared to do was sit in those chairs and talk away at their screen. Hell, they looked like they'd just fall over if they tried to stand up.

When Rocky finally took it all in, he just blurted out in disbelief, "That's sad."

"Eva!" Oh, right, they still had a job to do.

Walle and Rocky hastily followed Eve's cart through the road filled to the brim with fat humans. Eventually, the metal path opened up to the largest and most impressive sight Rocky had ever seen.

All around him were various shops, restaurants, and advertisement signs(pointless if you asked him since no one was paying the signs any mind) that displayed strange varieties like "food in a cup", and the one thing that all these places had in common was that they were run by robots. On the ceiling hundreds of feet above them, a holographic screen showed a beautiful blue sky that could easily be mistaken for the real one. Rocky and Walle found themselves stopping to gaze at everything in amazement and just take it all in. It felt more like they were in a city than a Space/Cruise ship.

A few seconds later, they were chasing the cart again. It was actually very easy getting past everyone. The robots were too busy serving the humans, and even when Rocky frantically waved his paw in front of their faces, the humans would pay no attention to the abnormally dirty box robot or abnormally skinny adolescent.

Eventually the cart arrived at a cylindor shaped elevator. The two stealthily remained behind the red sirened robot even as the cart turned to face the opposite direction in the elevator. Walle just hung on to one of the carts ledges, while Rocky was forced to stand right behind. Immediately he could tell that the elevator was only fit for robots since the cart was pressing painfully against his ribcage, but he could hold it. They were only going up two or three floors...hopefully.

Thankfully, that was true. On the third floor, the elevator opened up and the cart slid into dark room where a wheel was hanging from the ceiling. It looked like it was just steering itself for some reason. But when the red sirened robot did what looked like a salute with one of its tiny handles, the wheel lit up, along with the entire room. They appeared to be in a control room of sorts, like in an airplane, only wider and more complex. The wheel, it turned out, was another robot. In the center of the wheel was an eery red "eye" that peered at the cart that contained Eve. Rocky had to hastily dive right underneath the cart to prevent himself from being seen. Lucky for him, the wheel took no notice. In fact, it didn't seem to see Walle there either, even though he happened to be hanging on to the cart and was clearly in sight. Instead, it towered over Eve and scanned her body. Walle saw that after he did so, the sign "A113" flashed across its eye, and it looked at the red sirened robot. The two probably just had their own inner conversation with each other since the sirened robot did a salute and turned back to look at Eve.

Walle took their distraction as an opportunity to hide. As quietly as he could, he treaded across the gray floor to hide under a gap that happened to be underneath the controls in the room. But just when he'd almost got there, he fell through a hole that had just appeared beneath him. Rocky clamped a paw over his own mouth to cover up his gasp. For a moment he thought that the wheel had seen Walle and sent him through a trap door, but then the wheel also peered down the hole, still attached to the ceiling, and said, "Captain, you are needed on the bridge." Its voice was masculine, but it was monotone and direct. He showed no sign of emotion, and the fact that his large red eye never changed pretty much meant that he would be very hard to read.

To Rocky's relief, Walle appeared in his boxed form back through the hole in the floor, but he wasn't alone.

In front of him there was another human. He really didn't looke that much different from the others- obese but with tight skin- the only difference was that instead of the red jumpsuits that the others were wearing, this man was wearing a white jumpsuit with a "BnL" sign on his chest, and on his black haired head was a captain's hat. The other humans looked a little drowsy and placid, but this man in front of Rocky and Walle was the pure definition of TIRED. He didn't really look like he was up for any adventure or abnormalities...Since Rocky just came, it seemed that that was about to change, the Keytar player thought with a sigh.

Walle had just snuck off under one of the controls successfully this time, and was frantically gesturing to Rocky to do the same. Rocky gave a nod of understanding and soundlessly crawled from underneath the cart and joined Walle under the controls. And in the nick of time, too- the cart moved forward to stand underneath the wheel.

"Captain," He said, "Probe number one has just returned Positive."

Any trace of sleepiness the captain had earlier was swiped off his face. "Positive...? Are you sure, Auto? No probe's come back positive...before." He looked unsurely and nervously at the still dormant Eve. But then "Auto" used one of his handles to type some sort of unknown code on her body, and her screen flashed to life with the two beautiful blue eyes that mesmerized Walle. And her body lifted itself up and her arms and head were detached and free once again. She gave a salute to the astonished captain. Rocky felt himself smile with both relief and hope. Now that she was awake, they could take her back and go back to the trash planet...Hopefully she'd go back without a fight. Okay, that's stupid- of course she'd refuse. How would they convince her-

"Eva..." Walle murmured as he started to tread toward her. Rocky took notice of that and hastily pulled him back. "Not yet!" He hissed urgently. Though whether Walle had even heard what he just said was impossible to tell. He had an unusual dreamy expression in his eyes-he was still staring at Eve.

The captain was now looking at book that showed the picture of a plant- the same logo that Eve was still flashing. He looked a little nervous every time he read aloud that they were "going back home" and "reconstructing" or anything similar to that. That actually caught Rocky's ears every time that was mentioned. Where exactly was their "home"? That obviously meant that The Axiom wasn't exactly their true home. Then what was? And why would they want to reconstruct it? Did someone destroy their home? Did the HEARTLESS destroy it? That could definitely be the reason. Though Rocky didn't know how it was possible to reconstruct a world destroyed by the Heartless unless you defeated the one leading them.

"'Place the plant into the Holo Detector located in the Lido Deck...'" The captain continued reading, "'That will activate a speed warp back to Earth, and Operation Recolonize will truly begin when you plant it.'" The plant? The one that Eve had? How was that gonna help restore a world taken by the Heartless? Was the plant secretly a weapon the Heartless feared?...Wow, Rocky thought dully, that was so stupid to think-even for him.

Walle started to slide to the left underneath the controls so he could get closer to Eve. Sora saw it out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't worried this time. As long as he wasn't spotted, he would be fine. And Eve wouldn't attack him...would she?

She just might, he decided darkily. All those other times she attacked out of paranoia or just plain anger were proof that she could possibly...Rocky decided to follow Walle just in case. He started to crawl toward him.

Eve felt a tap on her shoulder as she continued listening to the captain read instructions out loud. She turned to the source. Oh, it was just Walle. She shook her hand while holding her hand in front of his face in a "not now" kind of expression. She was about to fulfill her directive; she didn't have time for interruptions...

Wait.

"Walle?" Eve was surprised that the captain or Auto didn't hear her. Her shout of surprise could've stirred the whole ship.

Walle cheerfully waved at her with a little "Yoo-hoo!"

"Hey, there." Rocky waved, just as casually. Eve's eyes were so huge that they could've been mistaken for full blue moons. "Rocky?"

Rocky would probably be alright since Anna had made his keyboard a weapon. It was Walle she was worried about. With Go-4 so close by, he could easily overpower her box shaped friend. She hastily pushed him back and tried to demand why he and Rocky were here, and scold him for how much danger they were in now.

To Rocky it sounded like she was making confusing whirring sounds reminiscent of a computer jammed into a music box. To Walle, she was making the most beautiful music he had ever heard.

"Eva..." He murmured lovingly. Her body was white and smooth and shiny- nothing like his own grimy and brown body. Her eyes were like the blue christmas orbs he had collected and placed in his home- and they were one of his most valuable treasures. How was it possible that a robot like her could be brought into the world? She must've been sent from Heaven-that was the only explanation he could think of. He gave a long wistful sigh. She was so pretty when she was distressed...

Rocky choked back a snicker. Eve was now staring at him and looked like she wanted to ask, "Are you even listening to me?" Walle looked like he was dreaming with his eyes open now.

"'Voice Activate(Eve shifted back into place upon hearing the captains voice again), Confirm Aquisition'"

"Confirm Aquisition." A female computer voice echoed across the room. All the lights in the room dimmed. Seconds later, what looked like a video camera appeared out of a whole in the ceiling and started scanning the room with a blue light. When the scanner landed on Eve, the light turned green, and a robotic claw appeared out of another whole in the roof that was right above Eve, holding her in place. Walle gave a little warble of fright, and Rocky held him back with a "Shh".

The claw used one of its fingers to type another code on Eve's chest, and her compartment slid open. The captain nervously braced himself to find...nothing.

Eve's compartment was empty. She gave a shout of panic.

"Where's the thingy?" The captain asked, bemused.

"The plant." Auto corrected.

"Right, right. Where is it? Did we miss a step?" He turned to look back at the book.

"Plant!" Eve murmured desperately, feeling inside her compartment just to check if it had somehow dissapeared from sight. She KNEW that she had it. It had been in her compartment ever since Walle-

Wait a second.

"Walle." Her eyes curved downward into angry crescents. He was the one who showed her the plant, but he obviously hadn't meant to give it to her. He must've somehow figured how to crack the code and take the plant back, that little...Rocky couldn't have taken it. He looked way too stupid to figure out something as complex as her access code. Without a doubt, it was Walle.

She angrily shook him and lifted him off the floor to see if he was sitting on it. Then she forcefully pried open his own compartment to see if he just stored it in there. Nothing. Did he lose it along the way? Dang it, she was never gonna fill her directive now! She frantically started scanning different parts of the floor to try and find it.

Rocky glared up at her. The accusing way she said "Walle" was enough to fill him in on what she had been thinking. "He didn't do it-I was with him the whole time!" He snapped, though he was slightly frustrated that he had to keep his voice down. He felt like he wanted to explode right now.

Eve just glowered at him coldly and continued scanning the floor. Walle stared at her curiously. "Eva...?"

"PLANT!" She snapped.

"Oh!" Walle exclaimed, then he tried to look for it as well, feeling the floor with his hands to make sure he didn't accidentally tread over it. Rocky stared at him incredulously. How could he not notice that Eve was angry at him? Or did he even mind?

"There is no specimen." Auto's cold voice halted Eve's antics and brought her back in position. Walle kept searching. "Probe's memory is faulty." The wheel stated.

"So...we're not going back to earth?" The captain asked.

"Negative."

"I guess things go back to normal then...Well!" He slammed the book closed with a somewhat relieved expression on his face. "False alarm!"

The scanner slid back into its hole and the room lit up again.

"The Probe must be defective." The captain decided.

Eve had never felt so humiliated in her entire existence. Damn that Walle...

"Go-4, take her to the repair ward." The red sirened robot saluted and shined a red light around Eve, which carried her back to the cart. Eve looked unusually pissed as she was sat back on. "Make sure she's not broken and just give her a little-AH!"

Now that Eve was out of the way, the captain had just noticed Walle, who was still searching for the plant. Rocky held his breath as he awaited the inevitable: What Walle was destroyed or dismantled? Would the captain be merciful enough to just send him back home? He seemed like an okay guy...

Walle, instead of looking scared and curling into a box again, simply treaded toward the captain and shook his pudgy hand. "Walle." He greeted happily. The captain stared at his hand, which was now covered in dirt, in slight disgust.

"Have, er, 'Walle' cleaned." He told Auto. Auto gestured Walle to the cart, and the boxed robot excitedly got on, mostly because he was sitting next Eve.

Rocky's wide eyes were focused on the cart. How was he going to get there without being noticed? Maybe he'd wait until Auto had his back turned and the captain was back under the room-

"Hey, who're you?"

Uh-oh.

"Hey, can you hear me? I said who are you?" Well, it was no use hiding now. He'd been spotted. Rocky awkwardly crawled out and stood tall, glancing around the room nervously. The captain was just staring at him in awe, like he'd never seen anything like Rocky before.

Rocky couldn't let him know he was human-the captain would wonder why he didn't look like any of the others. What could he say?

"I uh...I'm a robot...too?" He finally stammered out. If the captain was gullible enough...

"What's your name?"

"Rocky, sir."

"What's your directive?" The captain had raised a suspicious eyebrow.

Sora's eyes contracted nervously. He really hadn't thought that through. Not that he had time to anyway. Maybe he could say that he was made to fight...but it didn't seem like the ship would need something like that. What else was there? Something that every human would want.

It hit hiim like a hammer. He summoned his Keytar. "I uh... am designed to fix things with my tools and recycled things."

Wow, Rocky thought yet again, that was so stupid even Marshall would be ashamed of that lie. The captain's suspicion looked like it was rising.

"He's...probably defective." The captain decided at last. Rocky felt almost shaky with relief. "He has all the makings of a fine robot though. Strange design in fashion," He eyed Rocky's spacesuit. "Space helmet, probably for protection," He added looking at Rocky's bright green-coloured space helmet. "And an interesting body. He almost looks like what we used to look like."

Oh, so the humans weren't always fat. They must've been there a long time to gain that much weight though.

"Alright, Auto. Send Rocky to the Repair Ward as well. Make sure they give him a good use for his directive or something like that."

Auto once again gestured toward the cart and Rocky obliged. He sat down on the edge of it next to Walle. Walle cheerfully waved to Rocky, who waved back, though not exactly as heartily. When Walle tried to wave to Eve, she just glared at him, which immediately shut the poor thing up.

Rocky sighed. What had he gotten himself into?


	4. A Soothing Space Dance

Rocky felt more like a prisoner than a patient.

The duo of Walle and Rocky, now turned trio with Eve in the mix, were still sitting on the cart that was taking them to an unknown destination. Well, it wasn't exactly unknown since they knew that they were going to the Repair Ward, but they've never been there before.

Eve was always described as flawless by her creators, and even Auto had put into her records that out of every Extraterrestrial Vegitation Evaluator probe, she was the most dedicated, strong, and fearless. Her shooting range was always precise(she would NOT count that time that she missed that idiot, Rocky), she always came up with the best strategies, and she was even the very first to feel basic emotions. All the other probes were bland and practically lifeless like every other robot on the ship because they were only made to follow their directive. But Eve, though her directive meant more than anything to her, could still feel curiosity, happiness, anger, and even sadness. She was absolutely perfect... So why the hell was she labeled as defective? She never should've met Walle. She never should've trusted him for even a second. She couldn't even believe she had liked that no good thief. Everything would've been fine if she had just never met him. Well, sure he was the one who found the plant in the first place and was kind to her and...no. It was all his fault. He was a horrible robot.

Walle had never been to a repair ward. Back in his home, whenever a part of his broken, he would just look for another shut down Walle unit, take off their perfectly working part, and replace his own with theirs. He was pretty sure that they didn't mind. They never moved when he took them, so it was probably their own way of saying "Sure, have whatever you like". The fat man mentioned that he'd be getting cleaned. Maybe that meant that he would be nicer to look at. He would like it if Eve looked at him the way he looked at her. Right now, she wouldn't spare him a single glance. He knew she was angry at him, but still didn't really understand why. But that wasn't important. What was important was that he had to cheer her up. He'd make it up to her somehow. She liked plants, so maybe when he, Eve, and Rocky went back to earth, he could spend the next year searching for as many as he could get his hands on. Anything to make her happy.

Rocky wasn't as curious as Walle, nor was he as angry as Eve. He was probably somewhere in the middle, while also feeling a little bit of impatience. All he wanted was a way to get back to the trash planet with Walle and Eve. But Eve wouldn't cooperate because she blamed Walle for something he wasn't responsible for, and now they were being treated as broken robots. Rocky had no idea how they were going to "fix" him when he didn't need fixing in the first place. And he started worrying that they would try to open different "compartments" of his by tearing his space suit apart and opening up his helmet to see his "inner functions". He had to escape now, but he couldn't. His wrists were cuffed together tightly by a shiny blue light that felt uncomfortably warm against his skin. Walle and Eve had them wrapped around their bodies so they couldn't draw their arms out. Rocky's paws were so close together that he could barely uncurl them to summon his Keytar. But asking for a fight would probably be stupid anyway. So many robots were around. The humans couldn't do anything, but the robots probably could. He would just have to wait for the opportune moment.

About five minutes later(Rocky just assumed since he wasn't really keeping track of time), the cart finally stopped at a door. It opened, and the cart slid inside. And on the inside were some...interesting looking robots. Most of them were shaking uncontrollably and spouting out nonsense or just repeating the same words over and over again. And all of them were restrained behind the same blue light that was wrapped around the trio. The captain may have thought that Eve and Rocky were defective, but he probably had never even seen how bad all the other robots were.

They stopped right at the front of the door, and a mechanical claw came out of a hatch in the ceiling and turned the reproachful Eve around after stripping off the blue light around her and Walle's bodies along with Rocky's paws. Rocky massaged his paws with a sigh of relief as he watched the claw place a red object on Eve's chest. Then it pressed the yellow button that was in the middle of the object, and Eve immediately shut down. Then the claw picked her up and started moving her farther down the room and into another door at the very end. Walle gave a warble of fright and tried to go after her, but the claw grabbed him and attempted to put a red object on him as well. Rocky gasped and hastily moved Walle out of the way and scrambled out of the cart with the robot in his arms, trying to make a dash toward the door Eve was in. He knew he was in trouble now, but he was only trying to formulate a plan as he went along. He was sure he'd be able to find some way to escape without breaking a few limbs.

"Just a trim?" Rocky almost slammed into a pink cylinder robot that was now powdering white stuff all over the visor on his space helmet. "Hey! What the-?" Rocky couldn't get the words out since it kept slamming the powder directly under his visor every time it opened. And it didn't even stop there-he could feel it trying to smear lipstick on his mouth but failing since he kept moving around violently. Finally it ceased, but not before holding a mirror in front of his face. "You look gorgeous!" It said in a perky female voice.

Rocky cringed in horror at the sight of hideously packed on make up that had also somehow got stuck in his fur. To his relief, a claw picked up the pink robot and placed her behind one of the blue prisons. He started to run again, but the claw latched onto his back as well, and placed him and Walle behind another blue wall. Cursing under his breath, he attempted to wipe all of the make up off of his face as Walle stared around the room curiously.

On either side of the room, rows of the small blue prisons held at least one robot. Some were shaking so terribly that the claws would have to wrap the blue substance around their entire bodies, like they did to this massage type of robot that was slamming against its prison way too hard. Right next to Walle, a vacume type of robot appeared to be wheezing. Walle edged closer to have a better look, and suddenly it jolted up and "sneezed" dust all over Walle's face. The startled Walle turned to look at Rocky, whose face was switching between suppressed laughter and awkward sympathy. He wiped off the dust and grime with his suit, leaving Walle back to his regular grimy self.

It didn't really look so bad, Rocky thought as he continued to gaze around the room. If the worst they did was strap them with the blue substance, then he was probably in good hands. He just prayed that the fixing wouldn't hurt...

Rocky winced when he heard a screech coming from the inside of the door that Eve was in. Maybe it wouldn't be as painless as he hoped...

"EVA!" Walle was going positively mad now as he continued to stare at the door. Rocky turned to see why it was causing such an uproar. Through the see through door, he saw a mechanical arm massaging the bottom of Eve's head...but it was causing her head to move so far away from her body that it looked more like decapacitation. Though Rocky was fairly convinced that Walle would learn soon enough that she wasn't in any real danger-

Walle had started firing a laser from the middle of his eyes directly at the blue substance that was blocking their prison. Rocky's pupils contracted in panic. "Walle, NO!"

Too late. Walle awkwardly tumbled out of the small prison, and, as if things couldn't get any worse, the floor he thudded against happened to hit a play button on his chest.

"Put on you sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there!" The loud cheery voice coming from Walle's speakers was more than enough to attract the attention of every robot in the room- defective and security alike. Rocky, regretfully finding no time to roll his eyes, snatched Walle up and ran to the room Eve was in, summoning the Keytar in his pup pack.

"Okay, change of plans," He told Walle breathlessly, "Get Eve and GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

A crash, and Rocky and Walle had entered the other room, Eve staring incredulously at them. "Walle...?"

Walle, still thinking that Eve was in danger by the metal hands that were near her, searched around for some sort of weapon. He had no idea how to use them, but he had to fight to get Eve out, right? Then he spotted Rocky's giant key-it was perfect. It was big enough to smash things! He tugged it out of Rocky's paws.

Rocky gasped as Walle held onto to it, though the instrument was facing backwards towards the other room. "Er, Walle..." He approached him slowly so he wouldn't jump and accidentally activate a sour note. "You really don't want to-"

However, the threatening movement of one of the keys had Walle involuntarily shudder and increase pressure on the Keytar, and confirmed Rocky's worst fear: He accidentally activated a high note.

It all felt like everything was going in slow motion. The hard vibration in his throat told Rocky that he had just shouted "NOO!", and by the look on Eve's face, she had reacted the same way. It felt like his visor had suddenly shut tight, for he could not hear anything now except his heart thumping roughly against what he could've sworn was his head. The shockwave zipped through the Repair Ward, heading into the last place the trio in the room had wanted it to hit: The Power Supply for this room. A second later, the Keytar's loud note FINALLY decided to return to Rocky's trembling paws...Rocky could feel his face growing hot with anger.

"WALLE!" He shouted, and he could barely hear Eve's voice simultaneously shouting that as well, though her anger sounded white hot compared to his own, which was mainly just stemmed out of frustration. He had wanted to find a subtle way to escape since most of his LOUD attempts to escape in other worlds had often stuck him with an exhausting fight, and now Walle's antics had pretty much cornered him into another one.

But when he saw all of the threatening mechanical claws shut down and hang limply from the ceiling, Rocky's anger ebbed as quickly as it came...Until all of the defective robots were able to get out of their prisons since the power was the only thing that could hold them back. Walle awkwardly pressed the stop button on his self installed stereo and turned to Rocky with frightened and guilty eyes. Rocky stared back, his expression unreadable.

All of the defective robots left their prisons with warbles and whirs of excitement, and for some reason they kept staring around the room like they were looking for someone. But they immediately stopped when they all laid their eyes on Walle. As if following a telepathic mutual agreement, every single one of them crashed into the room and raised Walle high into the air like they were hailing a hero(though Walle did not look like he was enjoying it at all). To make matters worse, they carried him right out of the room-and not just out of the repair room, but right out of the ward and directly into the depths of the ship.

Next to Rocky, Eve let out a groan of frustration and flew off in Walle's direction. Well, that was probably a good sign...either that or she was doing it so she could kill him personally. He hoped it wasn't the latter. Though most of the anger had faded from Rocky, he still felt a little frustrated like Eve. But he still had to save him, and Walle didn't know any better anyway. Rocky proceeded to follow Eve.

Walle was having the worst time of his life. Never mind the fact that a bunch of robots he barely even knew were taking him away from Eve and Rocky, but he'd just never seen them so angry before. Not even Eve had ever looked at him with such hatred and resentment, and never had Rocky ever raised his voice at him even once. He'd had the one chance to make it up to Eve by saving her life, and it may have cost him his friend and love. Nothing could get any worse than that.

But it seemed that it would as the robots carrying him suddenly halted. Walle felt himself fall forward(one of the robots released its grip on him) right in front of the menacing, bulky robot bodyguards that now stood in rows before them all. On each of their "television screens", a red hand was displayed, and it was holding out all five fingers in a "stop" motion.

"Halt." He heard all of them say simultaneously. He started trembling again as a cold feeling of dread and fear took him over. He also had a bad habit of shivering and not doing anything else when he was terrified...What were those things going to do to him?

"Walle!" The little almost shut himself into his boxed form when he heard two voices shout his name. But it turned out to be Rocky and Eve. He wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or even more terrified.

Rocky picked up Walle and said quickly, "Okay, Walle, let's just go and find some way out. Don't worry, we'll-"

"CAUTION: ROGUE ROBOTS."

Rocky paused and turned to stare straight in front of him. He hadn't even noticed those robots until now. But their unexpected appearance wasn't what caused him and Eve to emit a gasp of shock; it was the pictures they were all showing on their screens. All of them were the same picture: Sora picking up Walle with a look of panic on his face, with Eve glaring daggers at both of them. Right underneath the picture was a sign that flashed "Rogue Robots".

Great. Like breaking out with defective robots wasn't bad enough. Now they were wanted criminals!

"Walle!" Eve turned back to glare at Walle again. But she didn't have time to say anything else. At the corner of the bulky robots, a red light was flashing dangerously, and it looked like it was charged and aimed straight at the trio.

"Crap!" Rocky, about half a second before they could shoot, practically crashed into them with his Keytar at the ready. He wasn't sure what those red lights did, whether they were lasers or some other kind of weapon, but he knew that they weren't good.

Eve was already of him, flying while carrying Walle right underneath her. Rocky had to sprint at top speed to keep her in sight. Right behind him, the bulky robots weren't chasing them since Rocky had destroyed nearly all of them in his haste, but the defective ones sure were. They were probably still wanting to worship Walle or something.

Eve finally hid in a dark corridor where not even her gleaming body stood out and crouched with Walle, who mimicked her. Rocky, taking the hint, also dived right into it. Lucky for them, all the rejects sped past them all. Five seconds later, more bodyguard bots were following them.

Wiping sweat off his brow, Rocky stood up a little to stretch out a bit. Walle turned to him, still looking very nervous and scared. Rocky sighed at his pitiful expression, and gave him a halfhearted pat on the head. He just couldn't stay angry at him. "It's okay. We'll work this out somehow."

Eve looked positively livid, however. She was making all sorts of nonsense whirs and high pitched screeches that Rocky was surprised went unnoticed by passerbies. But he was able to get some of her hand gestures. First she kept pointing fiercely to her plant insignia, then to Walle, then she pointed out the same picture of the trio that was flashed as "Rogue Robots" on a nearby screen. Rocky felt anger boil up inside him again.

"For the last time, Walle did NOT take the stupid plant!"

Now Eve directed her ferocity on him, while still pointing to the picture. Rocky just glared back. Okay, maybe the fact that the three were now wanted criminals was partly Walle's fault, but he didn't mean it at all! He was just trying to save her-what other explanation did she have that he crashed into her repair room?

"Look, it wasn't his fault! He just-! He was trying to save you!"

Well, that hadn't been the right thing to say at all. Rocky could practically hear the circuits in Eve's body overheating. Her crescent eyes were narrowed and downward so much that they were mere furious slits on her screen. Obviously she didn't believe him. Rocky reproachfully glared back. Behind him, Walle shook uncomfortably.

"How do you know YOU didn't lose the plant? Do you just immediately blame someone else even though all the evidence just points to yourself?" The words were out before they even came to Rocky's head. But a second later he already knew that he had said too much. Eve, with her lightning fast reflexes, shot out her gun and aimed it threateningly at Rocky, but he did not back down. He could easily fight her back. If she shot, he couldn't care less. All he wanted was for Eve stop blaming Walle for a crime he didn't commit.

For seconds, minutes, or even hours-Rocky couldn't tell- the two just glowered at one another, invisible sparks flying between them. Finally, Eve's eyes grew rounder when she looked past Rocky into a window. Rocky didn't bother turning around to register what had captured her attention. Suddenly, Eve seemed to have a satisfied look flicker over her eyes, then she grabbed Walle and fixed Rocky with a cold stare, holding out her other hand. Rocky stared at it like it was crawling with vermin, before reluctantly grabbing hold. She pulled him rather violently away from the corridor when the coast was clear.

"Hey, where are we going?" Rocky demanded as Eve showed no sign of slowing her pace though she was practically dragging him across the floor. She just stared resolutely ahead, with Walle, who now looked a little happier, held in her other arm.

XXX

One trip through an elevator later, the trio of fugitives reached a round and dark room, where Eve found a keyboard of some sort and proceeded to type something in it. Rocky had absolutely no idea what she was planning. For all he knew, she was probably just gonna blow him and Walle to smithereens after that last fiasco.

Almost unconsciously, he turned to see how the little robot appeared to be handling the situation. He expected him to still be shaking a little, but instead he looked quite calm. Placid, even. He wasn't staring into space or anything, but he was focusing intently on Eve's hand that wasn't typing, but hanging stiffly by her side. Walle proceeded to place his own two hands together, then returned to gazing at hers with the same longing expression he always carried when he was around her.

Unbelievable. Even though Eve blamed him for so many things, even though she was so livid with him, and even though it seemed impossible that the two would ever get together, Walle was still deeply in love with her. Rocky honestly felt both impressed and exasperated at the same time. For one thing, despite the fact that Walle was a robot, he had shown just as much-if not more-heart than any other friend he had made in any other world, and not just because his love for Eve could never be broken, but because of his kindness and innocence that he showed to everyone around him. He'd never give up on Eve, even if his love always remained one-sided.

A few blue flashes, and something in front of the threesome lit up. Before them, at the very end of the room, was a round pod that lit up with a white light. Eve stood before it, and gestured toward it. "Earth." She said simply.

Walle and Rocky stared at her in confusion. What did she mean? The pod was probably meant to transport them somewhere, but where was Earth?

"Earth." She repeated with an edge of irritation, and this time she gestured toward a screen that was above the pod. Displayed on it was a picture of round blue ball with splotches of green in various places. Walle suddenly warbled in understanding and turned toward Rocky, gesturing toward himself, then back to the picture.

"Huh?" Rocky felt more befuddled then before. Walle just kept repeating the hand signs over and over again. Rocky slowly came to a realization. "Oh! The trash planet!" Walle nodded enthusiastically, grabbed Rocky's paw, and pulled him into the pod. This was good, then, Rocky thought, at least now they could go back and Rocky could finally get back to Anna and Chase. He'd wasted so much time following Eve...

Walle sat on one of the cushiony couches that was stored inside it, banging his treads together casually like a kid waiting at the doctor's office. He turned to Eve and pat his hand on a vacant spot of the couch. Rocky already knew what was coming: Eve shook her head with a cold look on her face. "Directive." She stated, pointing at her plant insignia.

Walle didn't like that response at all. He defiantly sped out of the pod and placed himself before Eve, curling into his boxed form determinedly.

"Walle..." Rocky rolled his eyes, leaving the pod for a moment to pick Walle up and place him back alongside himself. "We have to go. It's obvious we're not wanted here." He glared at Eve, who determinedly avoided his gaze.

Rocky could not remember why he had so enthusiastically agreed to help Walle find a companion in Eve. He should've been able to tell that Eve would never be willing to stay with him. She would probably easily trade his life for a plant if she had the chance. He was forced to believe that whatever friendship that Walle had shared with Eve was over, along with the chance of finding love with her. But he wasn't giving up yet. Maybe when he got back to Anna and Chase, he could build a robot to accompany Walle. He was pretty sure he could do it with his tools, and Rocky would never want to see Walle left all alone in that lifeless world...

Rocky had been so busy swimming in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed Walle shifting back out of the pod and next to Eve. "Walle," He heard Eve say in annoyance. But before she could do anything else, there was a loud beeping sound coming from the elevator.

Someone was coming up.

Gasping in panic, Eve hastily shut the entire room down, bathing everything in darkness once again. Rocky hastily hid in a corner that was too dark for anything to be spotted, and crouched down, not even caring that it was cramped. He felt rather than saw Walle and Eve crouch beside him, both in their enclosed forms.

Out of the elevator came the red sirened robot, Go-4. That was enough to get Eve to peer curiously as he sped past them, thankfully not noticing their presence. What was he doing here, though? Auto never assigned him to explore anywhere but the captain's room and the EVE Probe Check room.

He typed in a few unknown letters on the Keyboard, and the pod sprang to life again. He entered the pod and, curiosity reaching its peak, Rocky Walle and Eve turned their heads to the pod to see what was so important to place in there.

Out of his compartment, bathed in a red light, and placed roughly on the ground, was the plant.

"Plant!" Eve whispered in shock, and she heard stifled gasps from the other two as well. Go-4 was already starting to leave. The three hastily hid back in the corner until Go-4 went back to the Keyboard and started typing again.

"Walle..." Along with the discovery and relief of finding the plant safe and sound came the unwelcome surge of guilt Eve felt flooding over her body like filthy mud. Walle was innocent. Rocky was telling the truth. Walle had never taken the plant and lost it or anything of the sort. And if Rocky had been honest about that, then that must've meant that it was true that Walle had thought that Eve was in danger and was trying to "save" her. It was all an accident and misunderstanding. How could she have been so dense? It was obvious from the very beginning that Walle cared so much about her. Stealing and making her wanted by authorities on purpose was the last thing Walle would want.

And she blamed everything on him.

"Walle..." She turned toward him, her voice dripping with sadness and forgiveness. She would make it up to him somehow. He was bound to-

Where'd he go?

"Eva! Rocky!"

Eve looked into the pod and her eyes widened into saucers. Walle was in there, and he was holding the plant!

"WALLE!" She made to make a grab for him, but Rocky came in faster. He sped into the rocket and picked Walle up, about to haul him out, but before he could even put a foot forward, the pod's door snapped shut.

It blasted into space.

Go-4 left. He never even heard Eve's anguished scream.

"No!" She looked all around the room. There had to be a way out into space somehow. She didn't know how, nor for what reason, but she knew that Go-4 wanted to destroy that plant. And the only way to destroy it when it's on a pod was to have it crash into a planet, or set it to self destruction. Most likely, it was the latter. Either way, she had to catch up to them and stop the pod before it was too late.

At last, she spotted an airway tunnel that directly led into space, and shoved herself in it, shooting herself at almost blinding speed as she flew toward the ship.

Rocky would've been screaming if he could move his mouth, which was occupied with being blown back by the G-force. As soon as the two had been launched, it forced Walle's backside to smash against the door and Rocky to smash against Walle. For a few terrified seconds Rocky thought he'd crushed him, until the ear splitting scream behind him told him otherwise. Either way, they were in deep trouble and Rocky had no way of moving since they were flying too fast.

"Cruising speed." A female computer voice rang.

Rocky and Walle immediately fell off the wall and painfully collapsed on the floor.

"You are now free to move about the cabin."

They both shot up and looked around for some way to get out. Luck seemed to be on their side as Walle spotted a control stick at the front of the pod, sticking out and lighting up red like a beacon of hope. He grasped it and attempted to tug at it and turn it around-anywhere, left, right, back, he didn't care. As long as it was away from wherever they were being sent to!

"It won't work, it's on Auto Pilot!" Rocky exclaimed hopelessly at Walle's fruitless attempts. To make matters worse, the female computer voice said, "Twenty seconds til self destruct."

Rocky gasped and stared desperately at the controls. He saw a tiny red button flashing up next to sign that said, "Cancel Self destruct". He pressed it eagerly...nothing happened. He repeatedly pressed it to no avail, starting to grow more frustrated and worried as the count down clock ticked down.

"Ten seconds til self destruct."

Next to him, Walle gave a high pitched shriek of fright and, for some reason, grabbed a fire extinguisher that happened to be in the room. He kept banging it against the window, apparently thinking that he could break it open.

"Ten...nine..."

Rocky's breathing quickened. He summoned his Keytar to help Walle try to break the window, but it was still shut tight.

"Eight...seven..."

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" Rocky cursed everytime his Keytar crashed into the window with no results. Walle was shaking worse than ever.

"Six...Five..."

So this was it. He'd come all this way, hoping to find Walle a love, and now they were both going to die trapped on a pod in space. In fact, Eve probably didn't even care. She wanted them out of the way anyway, right? Well, she'd be getting her wish...

"Four...three..."

...Wait a minute. There was still one more chance! He honestly wasn't sure if it would really work-odds are it would just implode in their faces- but it was all he could think of.

"Two..."

"WALLE! HOLD ONTO ME!" Walle obeyed and leaped into Rocky's arms. Sora covered him with his whole body, held his Keytar high into the air, and shouted one word:

"ALL THE NOTES AT THE SAME TIME!"

XXX

BAM!

Eve came to an abrupt halt more out of shock than anything else. A few feet away from her, the very pod that she had been chasing...exploded. With Walle and Rocky still inside.

"No...no." It wasn't true. It couldn't be! They weren't dead- not right after Eve had realized that Walle was completely innocent. She wanted to make it up to him. At the very least, she wanted to apologize for being so cruel and heartless. But now...he was gone. She'd never have her chance to make up. There's no way he could've survived. Her only friend was dead...

And Rocky had been telling the truth too. The only reason he had been so rude to her was because he was only trying to defend his friend with fierce defiance. He may have been stupid, but he knew Walle very well, and did actually seem to be a good person- at least to friends. But his death just didn't strike her as much as Walle's did.

She started forward again, not exactly knowing the reason. Maybe just to see one little snippet of proof to show that they were alive. Anything-

Something was flying toward her. It was small, but it was gradually growing bigger. All of a sudden, it just flew past her, leaving behind a shower of white sparkles, shouting in a comfortingly familiar voice, "EEEEVAAAAA!"

"Walle!" He was alive! Somehow, he made it through! Every negative emotion that Eve had felt seconds ago were snuffed out by the sight and sound of Walle. She eagerly chased after him.

What she didn't notice, however, was that Walle wasn't the only one who escaped unharmed. Or at least, not completely harmed.

Rocky, half conscious and floating downwards and upside down to boot, stared straight ahead as he tried to rescramble his thoughts. His ears made odd screeching sounds that muffled out the voices of the two robots miles away from him, and his SW spell had just worn off. Lucky for him, the spell had been powerful enough to block off the worst parts of the explosion, though there was now a small burn on the back of his right leg. The point was that he and Walle had survived. They were okay...

But how was he supposed to get through space? Paddle with his paws? At least Walle had the fire extinguisher to propel him. Eve could already fly. Rocky had no way of doing it, and Walle and Eve were probably too far away to hear him anyway. That's just great...

But he wished he COULD fly, with wings like Skye. He also wished he could fly a helicopter. But there must've been a way- he wasn't sure if it would still work. But it was worth a shot anyway. Shaking the cobwebs out of his head, hoping that he was as awake as possible, Rocky activated his pup pack jets and summoned the happiest thought he could muster.

Skye kissing him...

Rocky barely even noticed that he was already surging forward until he saw that Walle and Eve's shapes were getting closer and closer. When he was close enough, he yelled in excitement, "Walle! Eve!"

The two turned to him, both looking very happy. Walle gently pressed the handle of the fire extinguisher so he was brought to Rocky. Eve flew forward until he could see her eyes, now sad crescents. Her look was enough to tell him everything.

"It's okay. Really." Rocky sighed. Honestly he was still a little miffed about their squall, but for Walle's sake, he'd be willing to befriend her. And now she looked like she was in a good mood now that she knew that Walle was safe.

She gave him a happy nod and turned back to Walle, holding out her arms and approaching him like she was gonna hug him. But Walle accidently let loose some white sparks on her. Eve giggled and waved them away. "Walle..." She held out her arms again, ready to apologize.

"Oh, Eva!" Walle interrupted, holding out a hand. Eve stopped in confusion as Walle opened his box compartment and held something out. "Eva..."

Rocky and Eve's eyes widened.

"You...I don't believe it..." Rocky murmured, his face involuntarily blooming into a broad grin, "You got the plant?"

"WALLE!" Eve sounded absolutely delighted as she placed the plant in her own compartment. All of sudden, she embraced Walle tightly and started spinning him joyously, letting out a gleeful "WOO-HOO!" Behind them, Rocky let out an equally blissful laugh.

Walle felt dizzy. Half because of elation that Eve was hugging him, and because he was spinning around so fast the stars were swirling all around them. Since Eve seemed to be comfortable with hugging him, he just decided to nuzzle into her neck tenderly. Eve didn't mind it. In fact, for reasons she couldn't comprehend, she enjoyed it very much.

Walle had absolutely no idea how much this meant to her. Eve knew that Walle saved the plant because he knew that it was important to her and he wanted to make her happy, and nearly gave up his own life for it. This was probably the second time he had helped her, the first being when he helped her out of the sandstorm. In fact, if Walle hadn't caused that ruckus back on the ship, the trio never would've found the plant...

He deserved so much more than a hug, she decided happily. So, she looked into his happy eyes that reflected the beautiful stars, leaned close to him, and sparked a kiss.

Rocky gave a light gasp. That spark that he saw- that wasn't just a spark! And judging by the fact that Walle made an absolutely blissful warble as he limply let go of Eve and just floated there with a dreamy expression, he had thought the same thing Rocky had. Eve kissed him!

Eve giggled at Walle's reaction and Rocky's expression. The little robot had definitely enjoyed that, just as she had hoped. Though she had to admit, she honestly enjoyed that too. Even more than the warm nuzzle that he gave her. He was so sweet...

But she still had a job to do. And this time, she wasn't going alone.

"Walle? Rocky?" She gestured back to the ship. Rocky pointed to himself in confusion. "You even want ME back?" Eve nodded. "Why? Because I put up the protection field?" He wasn't challenging her or anything, he was just curious.

Eve widened her eyes again. Sora had saved them both? That changed her opinion on the PAW Patrol pup completely. He wasn't as dumb as she thought. All the more reason to keep him here. She nodded again, smiling with her eyes.

Rocky returned the smile gratefully. "Let's go, then."

But to their surprise, Walle shook his head and activated his fire extinguisher in a direction that was not going toward the ship. "Yoo-hoo!" He called playfully. Eve giggled and followed after him.

Rocky gazed in awe at the flying couple. Eve was actually putting her directive behind her for now to enjoy a moment with Walle? She must've been really happy...and he had a feeling that it wasn't just because he saved the plant. Rocky had a sudden urge to join the two's fun, but he restrained himself and just floated there, enjoying the show. This was their moment, and he would let them savor it.

"It only takes a moment..."

That was the song that played through Walle's head as he and Eve twirled, soared, and danced through space, neither one stopping, neither one having a care in the world. Walle couldn't remember another time so beautiful and enchanting as this. In fact, the more time he spent with Eve, the less he remembered at all. Nothing else mattered to him except Eve. There was no one else in the universe except those two. They flew between rocket engines that emitted a mesmerizing purple glow, they twirled around the wings that dimly shined their bodies as blue, and Walle vaguely remembered passing Rocky by, who waved to them happily and gave Walle a thumbs up.

But then it was over seemingly as soon as it began. Walle's fire extinguisher had reached its limit, and could no longer propel him. He let go of it and soared helplessly through space. Cold emptiness surrounded him as he no longer felt Eve's presence beside him. It was liking waking up from a wonderful dream into a world of darkness.

Then he felt something warm and smooth grasp him gently. "Eva..."

Eve gave him a tender smile. She had enjoyed their dance too. In fact, even she appeared reluctant to stop...

She beckoned Rocky toward the ship, and the young pup obeyed. Together, the three entered the ship. They had to get to the captain now. With Walle and Eve's rekindled and even closer relationship, Rocky felt like he could do anything now.


End file.
